Dustin Wong, CAVE

DJ Tripmaker, SVT 2.0

Dustin Wong

Dustin Wong's second LP Dreams Say, View, Create, Shadow Leads, is a departure from Dustin's previous methods but more closely a distillation of his live show into recorded form. The pieces are so intricate and detailed that we've asked Dustin to explain his process and he happily obliges us:

"When I begin to explore and to build a song through a series of pedals, I begin with the tuner. It helps keep my guitar's pitch consistent. An octave pedal and the distortion pedals allows me to change the textures and colors of the guitar. The delay pedal determines the tempo and the pattern. Once these sounds are determined, it then gets replicated and repeated through a loop pedal. Repeating that process, I lay different sounds and melodies on top. After the loop pedal comes the envelope filter that changes the color of the sounds but in a different way, more like a blend or like a dye. At the end of this chain of pedals awaits another delay pedal that corresponds to the delay pedal before the looper, further accentuating and changing the patterns of the loop.

I see all these pedals as a kind of textile factory. The sheets and colors are determined then the patterns are laid on top, one layer after another until it becomes a fabric mille feuille. Once that cake looks done it gets replicated again through another delay pedal. I can keep building these sounds on top each other and decide whether I want to take half of the cakes slices or not, if i do, I can gaze at the symmetrical void of what I have taken.

I changed the recording process for Dreams Say, View, Create, Shadow Leads from the process used for Infinite Love. In Infinite Love I recorded every layer as a separate track dividing them up throughout the stereo-field, but in Dreams Say… it was all mostly recorded live with a few overdubs moving around in the stereo-field. The presentation of songs are also different, Infinite Love was presented as a whole, and in Dreams Say… I decided to have titles for each song or idea. In a way the physical documentation and the presentation of the idea got switched. Just like choosing how to see a light through a prism. Whether to see the fragmented light into the prism and out to the single ray of light or the other way around."

Dreams Say, View, Create, Shadow Leads will be available on both CD and LP and Dustin will be touring extensively in support of the new release throughout the coming year.

CAVE

For the attention span impaired, howabout some Hawkwind, Can, Circle, Lightning Bolt, Pharaoh Overlord? Sounds good huh? Well, it's easy to hear bits and pieces of all of those bands in the sound of Cave, a dual drummer-ed riff heavy psych rock, that takes single riffs and hammers at them, pounding and pummeling, repetitive and mesmerizing, a sort of kraut flecked hypnorock, but with all sorts of strange twists and turns, bizarre arrangements, baffling breakdowns, but woven into longform jams that should have anyone into the above mentioned bands frothing at the mouth.

The sound is punk rock, lo-fi, but lush and epic, damaged and delirious, like garage rockers raised on Magma and Faust, there's plenty of Neu! in there, Stereolab too then, but it's way heavier than that, the guitars crunchy and thick, occasionally opening up into wailing psychrock blowouts, the drums getting more and more distorted and frenzied. Imagine an amphetamine fueled Circle or Can, but via the basement, the sound a sweat soaked drug drenched mostly instrumental kraut groove
Mathy, murky, like the fucked up younger brother of Yes, a Neanderthal krautrock, laced with awesome grinding space rock riffage, blown out squalls of ur-psych, flurries of percussive splatter, chanting cult vocals, bits of what the fuck vocoder (!), but for all the weirdness, the core sound of Cave is THE RIFF. Whether it's a warbly synth, or a superdistorted guitar, or tra-la-la vocals, they all align themselves with that riff, the mission, to entrance, to ensorcel, a heaving, pulsing, throbbing mass, the sound magnetic and irresistible. Endless jams that aren't really, but feel like they should be. Like they are anyway. Transcending the laws of time and space, dragging us kicking and screaming, bouncing and bobbing, into some blissed out basement at the end of the universe, where we subsist of nothing but riffs, drums and FX. We never want to leave.

SVT 2.0

The Strange Victory Touring Company will both celebrate our two-year anniversary and and lament Derek Becker's retirement from booking with three nights of strange and victorious music at The Hideout in Chicago, IL:

Yes, Derek Becker will wrap up his ten-year tenure as a booking agent at the end of October, followed by a brief sabbatical of research and reflection. After that? "Announce date pending," says Becker. But judging by his Facebook posts, much of the time he'll miss with the two-year-old SVT will be replaced by time spent with his three-year-old daughter...!

From November to infinity, the Strange Victory torch will be carried forward by Nicole Yalaz and Luke Knee. The two remain committed to doing creative, unlame and meaningful work with their badass group of artists.

Special thanks to Dan K and Drag City, who partnered with Yalaz and Becker nearly two years ago to get the company up and running, supplying food, water, shelter and guidance. This support will always be appreciated, and never forgotten. Moving forward, Strange Victory will be its own entity, yet ever-friendly and simpatico with their soul brothers and sisters at Drag City.